What does שׁוֹר (šwōr) mean in the Bible?
The Hebrew noun shor names an ox, bull, cow, or head of cattle according to context. Cattle supply draft strength, food, sacrifice, breeding stock, and economic value.
Hebrew · H7794
שׁוֹר
A bullock (as a traveller )
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שׁוֹרH7794
Pronunciationšwōr
What does שׁוֹר (šwōr) mean in the Bible?
The Hebrew noun shor names an ox, bull, cow, or head of cattle according to context. Cattle supply draft strength, food, sacrifice, breeding stock, and economic value.
Reader summary
Full entry for שׁוֹר (H7794) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render H7794?
The BSB source-word alignment has 79 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include an ox (17), ox (12), the ox (8), oxen (5), of an ox (3).
Where does שׁוֹר (šwōr) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 32:5. Its strongest book concentrations include Exodus (24), Deuteronomy (12), Leviticus (10), 1 Samuel (5).
What This Word Actually Means
The Hebrew noun shor names an ox, bull, cow, or head of cattle according to context. Cattle supply draft strength, food, sacrifice, breeding stock, and economic value. Because they are powerful living property, Israel's laws address their rest, feeding, loss, theft, injury, and danger to human beings. An ox rests on the Sabbath alongside workers and other animals.
A working ox must not be muzzled while treading grain. An owner who ignores a known goring habit bears heightened responsibility when harm follows. The widow's ox can also become an object seized by the powerful, exposing economic oppression. Wisdom recognizes the abundant harvest made possible by an ox while acknowledging the work and mess that productive capacity brings.
The animal is not a fixed symbol for strength, sacrifice, or stubbornness. Each use must follow the legal, economic, poetic, or worship setting and keep care, ownership, labor, and accountability distinct.
How the Bible Uses It
Shor names cattle as workers, property, food, offerings, wealth, and poetic images, with law and wisdom emphasizing rest, care, productivity, ownership, and responsibility for foreseeable harm.
- Deut.5.14
But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God, on which you must not do any work—neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox or donkey or any of your livestock, nor the foreigner within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest as you do.
Sabbath rest includes the household's ox and other livestock alongside servants, family members, and the resident foreigner.
- Deut.25.4
Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.
The command not to muzzle a threshing ox protects access to food while the animal performs productive labor.
- Exod.21.29
But if the ox has a habit of goring, and its owner has been warned yet does not restrain it, and it kills a man or woman, then the ox must be stoned and its owner must also be put to death.
A warned owner who fails to restrain a habitually goring ox faces responsibility when the known danger kills someone.
- Job.24.3
They drive away the donkey of the fatherless and take the widow’s ox in pledge.
Job describes oppressors taking a widow's ox in pledge, using essential property to expose exploitation of vulnerable households.
- Prov.14.4
Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty, but an abundant harvest comes through the strength of the ox.
The proverb contrasts an empty clean manger with the abundant harvest produced through an ox's strength.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders Itan ox17×Exodus 21:28, Exodus 22:1, Exodus 22:9, Exodus 22:10
ox12×Exodus 21:35, Exodus 21:36, Exodus 23:4, Deuteronomy 22:1
the ox8×Exodus 21:28, Exodus 21:29, Exodus 21:32, Exodus 21:36
oxen5×Genesis 32:5, Genesis 49:6, Joshua 6:21, 1 Samuel 15:3
of an ox3×Leviticus 7:23, Numbers 18:17, Ezekiel 1:10
bull2×Numbers 15:11, Deuteronomy 33:17
his ox2×1 Samuel 14:34
of oxen2×1 Kings 1:19, 1 Kings 1:25
of the ox2×Exodus 21:28, Proverbs 14:4
or his ox2×Exodus 20:17, Deuteronomy 5:21
your ox2×Exodus 23:12, Deuteronomy 28:31
. . .1×Judges 6:25
[one]1×Exodus 21:35
[places] for oxen1×Isaiah 7:25
[whether] cattle1×Exodus 34:19
a bull1×Deuteronomy 18:3
and an ox1×Exodus 21:33
and the ox1×Exodus 21:32
as an ox1×Numbers 22:4
bulls1×Hosea 12:11
from the ox1×Leviticus 4:10
his oxen1×Joshua 7:24
like an ox1×Proverbs 7:22
more than an ox1×Psalms 69:31
nor oxen1×Judges 6:4
nor your ox1×Deuteronomy 5:14
of your oxen1×Deuteronomy 15:19
Their bulls1×Job 21:10
then the ox1×Exodus 21:29
whether ox1×Exodus 22:4
who let the ox1×Isaiah 32:20
with an ox1×Deuteronomy 22:10
with your cattle1×Exodus 22:30
Show sample aligned rows
Genesis 32:5שׁ֣וֹרtooxenNoun - masculine singularGenesis 49:6שֽׁוֹר׃tooxenNoun - masculine singularExodus 20:17וְשׁוֹר֣וֹtoor his oxConjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine singularExodus 21:28שׁ֥וֹרtoan oxNoun - masculine singularExodus 21:28הַשּׁ֗וֹרtothe oxArticle | Noun - masculine singularExodus 21:28הַשּׁ֖וֹרtoof the oxArticle | Noun - masculine singularExodus 21:29שׁוֹר֩tothe oxNoun - masculine singularExodus 21:29הַשּׁוֹר֙tothen the oxArticle | Noun - masculine singularExodus 21:32הַשּׁ֖וֹרtothe oxArticle | Noun - masculine singularExodus 21:32וְהַשּׁ֖וֹרtoand the oxConjunctive waw, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowGenesis 32:5
Aligned rows79
Books represented17
Genesis2Exodus24Leviticus10Numbers4Deuteronomy12Joshua2Judges21 Samuel52 Samuel11 Kings2Nehemiah1Job3Psalms2Proverbs3Isaiah4Ezekiel1Hosea1
Source forms
שׁ֥וֹר11xšō·wrExodus 21:28, Exodus 21:35, Exodus 22:10, Exodus 34:19
שׁ֣וֹר9xšō·wrGenesis 32:5, Exodus 21:36, Exodus 22:1, Leviticus 22:27
הַשּׁ֖וֹר3xhaš·šō·wrExodus 21:28, Exodus 21:32, Isaiah 32:20
הַשּׁוֹר֙3xhaš·šō·wrExodus 21:29, Leviticus 9:18, Judges 6:25
הַשּׁ֔וֹר3xhaš·šō·wrExodus 21:36, Exodus 22:1, Numbers 22:4
מִשּׁ֥וֹר2xmiš·šō·wrPsalms 69:31, Proverbs 15:17
שׁוֹר֙2xšō·wrExodus 21:36, Isaiah 1:3
שׁ֡וֹר2xšō·wrExodus 22:9, Numbers 18:17
Parsing patterns
Noun - masculine singular31xGenesis 32:5, Genesis 49:6, Exodus 21:28, Exodus 21:29
Article | Noun - masculine singular13xExodus 21:28, Exodus 21:29, Exodus 21:32, Exodus 21:35
Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine singular7xDeuteronomy 5:21, Deuteronomy 22:4, Deuteronomy 33:17, Joshua 7:24
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular6xLeviticus 9:4, Leviticus 22:23, Leviticus 22:28, Numbers 7:3
Noun - masculine singular construct6xExodus 21:35, Exodus 23:4, Deuteronomy 22:1, 1 Samuel 12:3
Preposition-m | Noun - masculine singular4xExodus 22:4, 1 Samuel 15:3, Psalms 69:31, Proverbs 15:17
Noun - masculine singular construct | second person masculine singular3xExodus 23:12, Deuteronomy 15:19, Deuteronomy 28:31
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular construct | second person masculine singular1xDeuteronomy 5:14
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Known safety risks should be documented and addressed rather than hidden to protect an owner's reputation, income, or convenience.
- People facing loss of livelihood assets may need practical assistance and qualified local advice beyond a general biblical principle.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that every ox occurrence teaches about pastors or wages, since Paul's extension begins from a concrete animal command.
- Do not claim that ownership removes accountability for a known hazard or permits deprivation of a working creature's basic needs.
- Do not claim that cattle wealth by itself proves covenant blessing, wisdom, or moral faithfulness.
Evidence Summary
Hebrew word. Cattle beast distinguished by strength and labor capacity; represents wealth, sacrifice, and covenantal obligation in Israel's economy.
Source Gloss
a bullock (as a traveller )
Extended definitionSource: Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon + Brown-Driver-Briggs
Cattle beast distinguished by strength and labor capacity; represents wealth, sacrifice, and covenantal obligation in Israel's economy.
a bullock (as a traveller) BDB: a head of cattle Usage: bull(-ock), cow, ox, wall (by mistake for 7791).
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
Working animal necessary for productive labor and increase of crops
Livestock representing material wealth, contrasted with spiritual goods
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 79 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
שׁוֹר is built from this root:
שׁוּרH7788
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
Shor joins strength with responsibility. The ox makes heavy agricultural work possible and can contribute to abundant harvest, yet its value never removes its creaturely need for rest and food. Sabbath law includes the animal within a household's cessation from labor. The threshing command prevents a worker from being denied sustenance in the very act that produces food.
Exodus treats a known goring pattern as information that changes the owner's responsibility, refusing to let property rights erase foreseeable danger to human life. Job's image of a widow's ox taken in pledge reveals how control of a productive animal can become control over a vulnerable person's survival. These strands make stewardship more than maximizing output.
Owners and communities must consider care, risk, access, restitution, and the effects of decisions on those with less power. Later biblical applications to human workers build on the principle without making people equivalent to animals. The noun remains concrete, and its ethics arise from the relations surrounding the cattle.
Anchor passage
Deut.5.14
Doctrinal connections
- Sabbath rest extends God's ordering mercy into household labor, including the treatment of working animals.
- Productive strength is a gift that carries obligations of nourishment, care, maintenance, and humane limitation.
- Foreseeable danger creates moral responsibility when an owner has knowledge and the practical ability to restrain harm.
- Property systems become oppressive when they strip vulnerable households of the assets needed for livelihood and survival.
- Wisdom accepts the inconvenience of living productive systems rather than idolizing cleanliness without fruitfulness.
- Sacrifice and food uses require their own covenant contexts and do not exhaust the animal's biblical significance.
Shor is a Hebrew common noun that can refer to an ox, bull, cow, cattle collectively, or a head of cattle. Gender and English rendering follow the animal and grammatical setting. Legal texts often repeat the noun to track ownership, injury, compensation, and responsibility precisely.
From Old to New Testament
Paul twice applies the unmuzzled-ox command to the support of human laborers in ministry, making an explicit canonical extension while preserving the original command's animal setting. Jesus and the apostles also treat Sabbath mercy and responsible care as compatible rather than opposed.